Kindergarten Update 9/24-9/28

Hi Families!

Here is what’s going on in Kindergarten next week:

Our first field trip is this next Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018.  Please make sure you have a booster seat with your name and leave it in front of the class.  Also, students need a sack lunch and sweatshirt because it can be cold at Live Earth Farms.  Also, we will be leaving at 8:15 am.  So, please be here on time.  Thanks!  If you signed up to drive and are clear through the district, please plan on driving.  One of the other Kindergarten classes may need us to drive some of the students, so please be prepared to have a full load.  If their class gets enough drivers over the weekend,  we may need to double up in cars (since we have more than enough drivers if we are just driving the students from our class).

Art/Science/Theme: We will finish up our unit on "Apples" with a fun lesson about Johnny Appleseed. Students will be making a seasonal apple tree project.  These are one of our favorite apple projects.  To conclude this fun apple unit, we will celebrate our learning with an "Apple Party" on Friday!

Math: Students are learning about “5 frames” and “10 frames”.  They are also learning the concept of subitizing, which is the ability to see a small amount of objects and quickly know how many there are without counting (such as memorizing the amount of dots on a dice). Students will play math games at centers with race to 5, doing tally marks with popsicle sticks,  and recognizing numbers.  The students did their first CGI word problem last week.  Check it out.  You can go over this with your child and do the challenge numbers on the back.  The students did great and used a variety of strategies such as tally marks, 5 frames, 10 frames, number sentences, and pictures.  Please go over this sheet with your child and have them explain their answer(s) to you!

Word of the Week: “go, at”.  Students will practice writing an “I like to _____.” sentence.

Handwriting Focus Letters: W, e, z

The students continued their study on having a "growth mindset".  We talked about how the brain is a muscle and how we need to exercise it in order for it to grow. One way to do this is to keep trying and never give up. If we stop trying our brains shut down and get lazy. So in kindergarten, we are learning how to exercise our brains and if we don't know how to do something we can use the term, "I can't do that, YET!". Next week, we will discuss the difference between a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. We are also learning ways to "reflect" rather than "react" to situations. We concluded with a book called "Sophie's Getting Really, Really, Angry".

RTI will begin on Monday, September 24th.  As we discussed at Back to School Night, RTI (Response to Instruction) is our school-wide leveled reading program.  This program is designed to meet the specific reading needs of each child.  Students will move from group to group according to their ability, needs and growth.  I sent home a note in each student’s folder letting you know who your child has for RTI.  There will likely be a few changes throughout the next few weeks as we really get to know your child’s specific reading skills so we might move them to different groups accordingly and we will inform you of these changes as they come up.

As a reminder, it is school policy to leave all toys at home (unless it is for Apple or after school purposes). Students have been bringing stuffed animals, jewelry, cars, and/or Legos and it's becoming a distraction in the class.  Thank you for your support!

On Tuesday, September 25th, I will be off campus for a Science training.  I'm one of the Science cohorts for our school and I'll have a sub all day. 

Reminders:

Wednesday 9/26 - Field Trip to Live Earth Farms (we have enough drivers! YAY!

10/12 - Harvest Festival

Have a great weekend,

Brenda